Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: Kirk Mitchell and Ryan Parker

STUDY: MEDICAL POT FUELS ILLEGAL TRADE

A Law-Enforcement Report Says Cannabis Is Being Transported to Other 
U.S. States From Colorado.

Colorado's medical-marijuana industry has spawned illegal drug 
networks that are marketing pot across the U.S., illustrating that 
state laws aren't keeping the drug in the hands of people entitled to 
use it, regional enforcement officials say.

A Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area team spent 
three weeks examining data gathered in the two years following the 
enactment, on Jan. 1, 2010, of state laws governing the cultivation, 
manufacture and retail sale of medical marijuana and related products.

The review found more than 70 instances of the diversion of medical 
marijuana to criminal drug operations. Colorado patients, caregivers 
and dispensaries have diverted medical marijuana to illegal use in 23 
states, according to the review.

"We felt it was probably being diverted but didn't expect it to be 
this pronounced, especially with such a small-scale study," said 
Rocky Mountain HIDTA director Tom Gorman. "This is just the tip of 
the iceberg."

In the report, the Drug Enforcement Administration suggested Colorado 
is on track to become a primary source of supply for high-grade 
marijuana throughout the country.

But Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, said 
Colorado has the most complex and strict medical-marijuana laws in 
the country. If medical pot is being sold illegally, he said, 
officials need to crack down on offenders.

"It's just disingenuous to say that marijuana didn't exist in other 
states and that all of a sudden it does because of medical-marijuana 
laws in Colorado," Vicente said.

The Rocky Mountain HIDTA, which coordinates local, state and federal 
drug-enforcement activities in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, 
cited drug arrests in which seized pot originated from cities 
including Colorado Springs, Denver, Longmont, Boulder, Avon, Thornton 
and Carbondale.

In one case, a Kansas Highway Patrol officer stopped a driver headed 
to Richmond, Va., carrying 10 pounds of marijuana. The driver 
allegedly told police he got the drugs from Fort Collins dispensaries.

In April 2011, the North Metro Task Force found marijuana, $4,700 and 
five guns, including an AK-47, at a Commerce City home. The owner had 
been illegally selling medical marijuana to people who didn't have 
medical cards.

Thornton police Sgt. Jim Gerhardt, who serves on the North Metro Task 
Force, said there has been an explosion of illegal-marijuana cases in 
the past two years, ranging from patients selling drugs to suppliers 
growing large quantities of marijuana for illegal sales.

As recently as 2010, Thornton cops would get only one or two calls 
for illegal marijuana-growing operations a year. Now, they can get 
multiple calls in a single day. Most supply some people with valid 
medical-marijuana cards but have hundreds of plants more than they 
should, he said. Many of the growers have armed themselves to protect 
against home invasions.

"It's becoming a huge, huge problem," Gerhardt said. "At the local 
law enforcement level, it feels like its spinning out of control in a 
lot of ways."

He said instead of focusing on complex international drug cartels 
bringing cocaine into Colorado, the task force is dealing with 
numerous illegal marijuana cases.

Vicente said the cases cited by authorities represent a tiny portion 
of the more than 1 million legal medical-marijuana transactions each 
year in Colorado. There were relatively few such cases in 2012, an 
indication the situation is getting better, he said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom